Wallace: Rosen flap a GOP "win in every regard"
In the newly-declared battle to frame the general election, the president seemed to be winning. His "Buffett Rule" proposal - designed in part to define presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney as seeking to protect low tax rates for the one percent - was dominating the political news cycle. Meanwhile, the Romney camp was scrambling to find some way to win over women amid polls that showed Romney trailing the president by double-digits among female voters.
Then, on Wednesday, a gift from Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen: A criticism of Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mom, as someone who "has actually never worked a day in her life" and thus isn't qualified to advise her husband on women's issues.
Continue »Fluke: Rush Limbaugh wants "to silence women"
Asked why she thought Limbaugh made the comments, Fluke told CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes that Limbaugh wants women like her to stop asking for the health care they deserve.
"It's an attempt to silence women. That's really what it's about, if we're called these names, then we'll go away and we won't demand the health care we deserve and we need and I think women have proven those folks wrong," said Fluke. (watch above at left)
Asked if she had ever been subject to similar comments, Fluke responded with a laugh that it had never happened on nationwide airwaves. But, she added, "I think that a lot of women unfortunately have heard those types of words and historically they've always been used to try to silence women, especially women who are speaking out about their reproductive health and reproductive needs."
Continue »Timothy Dolan: Birth control tweak a "first step"
President Obama and Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan.
(Credit: Getty Images )Updated 6:14 p.m. Eastern Time
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has been harshly critical of a federal requirement that church-linked organizations provide contraceptive coverage to their employees, said Friday that it was reserving judgment on the administration's decision to tweak the policy.
After uproar, Obama tweaks birth control rule
Under the policy announced Friday, employees of religiously-linked schools, hospitals and charities would still have access to free contraceptive coverage - but those organizations would not have to pay for it. Instead, health insurance companies would be required to provide it free of charge, though it remains unclear exactly how that would work.
The Conference said in a statement that it sees "initial opportunities" in the policy change, but that it still had concerns.
After uproar, Obama tweaks birth control rule
Updated 3:33 p.m. Eastern Time
In what senior administration officials described as an "accommodation" in the wake of an uproar from religious leaders, President Obama announced Friday that the government will not force religiously-affiliated institutions such as schools, charities and hospitals to directly provide birth control coverage as part of their employees' health care coverage.
Female employees of these religiously-affiliated institutions will, however, still have access to no-cost contraceptive coverage. It will come directly from the employee's health insurer, who will be required to offer the coverage for free. Religious organizations will not be required to provide the contraception coverage, subsidize it or refer women to it.
Speaking in the White House briefing room, the president said the decision protects religious liberty while ensuring that "women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where they work."
The president said that religious liberty is an "unalienable right as enshrined in our Constitution," adding: "As a citizen, and as a Christian, I cherish this right."
A White House official told CBS News that Mr. Obama called Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, who has been critical of the White House position, to tell him about the change.
Timothy Dolan: Birth control tweak a "first step"
Continue »Obama to announce revamp of birth control policy
President Barack Obama
(Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)UPDATED 11:41 a.m. ET
President Obama is scheduled to announce Friday afternoon a revamp of his contraception policy requiring religious institutions to fully pay for birth control, changing the onus on who pays for contraception from employers to insurance companies.
Sources tell CBS News the White House will not back off the administration goal to provide increased access to birth control for women, but it will provide religious institutions additional details on how to comply with the law.
Continue »Senators seek reversal of birth control decision
Senators Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012" would ensure that employers at schools, hospitals and other organizations with ties to religious groups don't have to violate their consciences.
"Under our Constitution, religious organizations have the freedom to follow their beliefs, and government should honor that," said Manchin. Added Rubio: "We cannot allow the government of the United States to abuse its power by forcing faith-based organizations to pay for something they are morally opposed to."
The Obama administration announced last month that while churches and other explicitly religious organizations will be exempt from requirements that employers provide birth control coverage to their employees, religiously-affiliated organizations will not be exempt.
The decision angered many Catholics, including some who are largely supportive of President Obama's policies. (Manchin is one of four Senate Democrats who have expressed dissatisfaction with the requirement.) On "CBS This Morning" Thursday, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, said he hoped the "massive negative reaction to this ruling" will prompt the Obama administration to reverse course and broaden the exemption. The Republican presidential candidates, meanwhile, have harshly attacked the administration over the issue on the campaign trail.
Occupy D.C. protesters in standoff with Park Police
Hundreds of Occupy D.C. protesters stood in solidarity at Washington's McPherson Square Monday as U.S. Park Police began enforcement of its no-camping regulation.
The National Park Service released a statement Friday announcing that the U.S. Park Police would begin enforcement "on or about noon," stating that "[a]ny temporary structure used for camping will be subject to seizure."
When police arrived and were met by the hundreds of protesters and more than 100 media and spectators, however, they declined to take immediate action.
As a symbol of their message, occupiers placed a blue tarp over the statue of General McPherson emblazoned with the words "Tent of Dreams." They chanted, "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."
Continue »Gay rights questions follow candidates on trail
It's becoming an increasingly routine scene on the campaign trail: A Republican presidential candidate being confronted over his or her position on gay rights.
On Monday, Mitt Romney was stumping at a diner when he unknowingly approached a gay New Hampshire resident dining with his husband. The man asked Romney if he would support the repeal of state laws allowing same-sex marriage; Romney responded that marriage should be between a man and a woman. When Romney's spokesman tried to cut the conversation short, the man said mockingly, "Ohhh, I guess the question was too hot."
On Sunday, Rick Perry was speaking at a coffee house in Iowa when an audience member screamed, "Why do you hate gay people so much?" He was also asked why he is "demonizing gay and lesbian people" and pressed on gays serving openly in the military. Perry has been criticized by gay rights advocates over an ad in which he says, "I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."
Last week, an eight-year-old boy approached Michele Bachmann at a book signing and, after prodding, said, "Ms. Bachmann - my mommy's gay but she doesn't need any fixing." Bachmann later called it "reprehensible" that the mother encouraged the child to make the comment. (It was the second time Bachmann had been challenged in recent weeks: She was also questioned by a high school student in Waverly, Iowa, who asked what she would do to support the LGBT community and pressed her on marriage rights for same-sex couples.)
Newt Gingrich promises "fidelity to my spouse"
Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich - who has acknowledged marital infidelity in the past - pledged in a written statement to an Iowa social conservative group to "uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others."
Gingrich's statement to the Family Leader comes in lieu of signing the group's "Marriage Vow," which opens with the words "Faithful monogamy is at the very heart of a designed and purposeful order" and asks candidates to appoint "faithful constitutionalists" to the federal bench and reject Sharia law. Three Republican candidates - Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Senator Rick Santorum -- have signed the pledge.
Gingrich, who has been married three times, was criticized in Saturday's Republican presidential debate over his personal history, with Perry saying, "I've always kind of been of the opinion that if you cheat on your wife, you'll cheat on your business partner."
U.S. makes first-ever push for gay rights abroad
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defends the rights of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender persons from around the world in a speech entitled "Free and Equal in Dignity and Rights", at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, International Human Rights Day.
(Credit: AP)"I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world whether it is passing laws that criminalize LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation," Mr. Obama said in a presidential memorandum.
The memorandum includes a number of instructions for federal agencies doing work overseas, among them to improve protections for LGBT asylum seekers and to strengthen opposition to criminalization of LGBT status or conduct. It instructs the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies to use foreign aid as a mechanism to "build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons."
"The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Mr. Obama said in a statement.
LGBT advocates in the U.S. have praised Mr. Obama for the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and his administration's decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriages the legal union between one man and one woman. Mr. Obama has called his position on gay-marriage "evolving," though he currently opposes it.
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